Saturday, April 25, 2009

Bea Arthur (1922-2009)

The second-best thing about the Star Wars Holiday Special has passed away.Beatrice Arthur, the acerbic, mannish star of "The Golden Girls," "Maude," and your most deviant dreams, died today in Los Angeles. They originally said it was natural causes, but now they're saying it was cancer of some sort. She was eighty-six.Look, the "Holiday Special" was an abomination, but I remember actually enjoying Arthur's song in the middle of it. Okay, maybe enjoy is too strong a word, but hey, it was less revolting than the other musical numbers, and was less destructive of my STAR WARS memories than Itchy, Mark Hamill with lipstick and eyeshadow on, the Special Editions, or Kitster.

She was an outspoken and intimidating woman, so it shouldn't have surprised me that, when I searched for a photo of her for today's blog, to find a painting of her wrestling a velociraptor.
I don't have any personal experiences with Ms. Arthur to share, I didn't watch her shows, and I never met the woman, so I can't say that I'm really in mourning right now. But hey, she entertained a lot of people and was a role model for a lot of middle-aged women in the Seventies.

Plus, Bea Arthur was the perfect punchline for so many jokes in the last couple decades. Guess it's gonna have to be Rosie from here on out.

Bea Outfield

2 comments:

ryanlb said...

I don't have anything to say about Bea Arthur, but anyone that saw the Holiday Special should have a baseball bat broken over their face.

A metal baseball bat.

Anonymous said...

We use the Christmas special to test the mettle of those who say they are Star Wars fans. And then we discuss the horrors of being leared at by a dirty old man wookie.